COURSE #3 AT MEDINAH COUNTRY CLUB has reopened for play following a major renovation by the Australian design firm of OCM. Photo’s by Rory Spears.
EASY AS 1-2-3
It was great to finally return to my job at Medinah Country Club today for the 1-2-3 outing.
1-2-3 means the outing is played over all three of the clubs courses.
BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN!-Finally, but better late than never.
This week parts of the clubs team will head to Royal Montreal for the 2024 Presidents Cup. The Presidents Cup will visit Medinah in fall of 2026, and it will be the first big test for Course #3, that just reopened a little over 60 days ago from renovation.
So far the early reviews are good from those members who have played the golf course, and the raters from a few national golf publications that have been out to play.
2019 BMW Championship champion Justin Thomas snuck out for a round. The word is that Thomas had a normal round of golf, even for a PGA Touring professional. A few birdies, pars and bogeys in a casual round. As for a score, word is that Thomas did break 70.
Course #3 does look really good as it continues to grow in, it should be in really good shape by the time the Presidents Cup rolls around. Next year the club will celebrate it’s centennial, it should be a great year to be a member or a guest at the club. The new short hole course and very large putting green, look pretty sharp too. It makes for a great view. When one drives up the main drive towards the historic and famed Medinah clubhouse.
LAST WEEK I did my first media golf coverage of the year. As I went to the LIV Golf Chicago tournament at Bolingbrook GC. I will write more about the tournament, but now with sometime to think about things even further. I have come away with some real good impressions of the week that was. Kudo’s to Jon Rahm who won the season long LIV Golf individual championship.
TIGER WOODS has announced that he has undergone yet another back surgery, the number of surgeries Woods has been through has become a very big number. So a result, it is time for Woods to retire. But would he could do is sit out a few years. Then go give it a shot on the champions tour.
THIS PAST WEEK I did go play the recently renovated Winnetka Golf Club, the final project by architect Rick Jacobson. Jacobson has decided to retire after a long run in the world of golf course design. I will be writing more about Winnetka GC and the par-3 course in the near future. The par-3 course is really fun, and the course is now under the watchful eye of Northbrook based KemperSports management.
CONGRATULATIONS to now former Callaway sales guy Billy Trimble, as he heads west to Colorado. Trimble will join Titleist Golf out in the Rocky Mountain State.
IT WAS NICE TO SEE the PGA of America clarify a few things in regards as to who is eligible to play in the Ryder Cup, and or the PGA Championship going forward. The recent decision by the PGA, clears the path for LIV golfers to be participants in the Ryder Cup. 2025 Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley made it clear that Team USA will have the best 12 American golfers on the team. No matter which tour they are playing on. Good for Bradley to standing up to some of the politics that have been a thorn in the side of golf the last few years.
I WAS SURPRISED to see the recent story by a Tampa area paper, about LPGA Hall of Fame inductee Jan Stephenson’s Tarpon Woods Golf Course. A town hall type meeting was held at the club, and Stephenson and her manager took some abuse by those in the crowd. It will be interesting to see what ca be done to put the course and clubhouse back on track.
So in closing, it’s good to be back on the Gog Blog. But I do have plenty of catching up to do. Because there has been plenty of good stories that have happened. While I have been on the mend from foot surgery.
But it’s also time to be back on the golf course. Golf season here up north is starting to fade. But I am playing again, and that’s the best feeling of all. RS